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This year the IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation (TDEI) is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary. TDEI actually began in 1994 when 'Dielectrics' was added to the previous title of the same publication of IEEE Transactions on Electrical Insulation (TEI). The first issue of TEI was published in March 1965, fifty years ago, with a very modest beginning. That first issue, which can be accessed on IEEE Xplore, had only four papers constituting a total of 19 printed pages. TEI was international in outlook right from its beginning. The four papers in the first issue were submitted from Japan (one paper) and the USA (three papers). The second issue of TEI was published in November 1965 and had papers from the United Kingdom (two) and the USA (one). In its first year TEI had a total of seven papers totaling 48 pages. These papers covered a wide range of topics such as electrical failure of organic insulators, thermal behavior of enamel wires and other solid insulation, electrical breakdown of solids and gaseous insulation. Papers on these topics may still be seen in recent issues of TDEI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the synchronization of stochastic uncertain complex dynamic networks with time‐varying delays. In contrast to existing synchronization network models, the current study considers both internal time‐varying delays and coupling time‐varying delays. By analyzing the two factors (i.e. time‐varying delays and uncertainties) on the synchronization performance of stochastic uncertain complex dynamic networks, a new inverse optimal adaptive control is proposed. The analysis tool developed in this paper is based on Lyapunov technique, algebraic graph theory and inverse optimality, which does not need to solve Hamilton‐Jacobi‐Bellman equation. Some sufficient conditions are established for the synchronization of stochastic uncertain complex dynamic networks with time‐varying delays. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the present approach, simulation results are illustrated. In this paper, we consider the synchronization of stochastic uncertain complex dynamic networks with time‐varying delays. Different from the existing synchronization of the networks model, we take the internal time‐varying delays and the coupling time‐varying delays into account. By analyzing the two factors (i.e. time‐varying delays and uncertainties) on the synchronization performance of stochastic uncertain complex dynamic networks, a novel inverse optimal adaptive control is proposed. The analysis tool developed in this paper is based on Lyapunov technique, algebraic graph theory and inverse optimality, which does not need to solve Hamilton‐Jacobi‐Bellman equation. Some sufficient conditions are established for the synchronization of stochastic uncertain complex dynamic networks with time‐varying delays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time-domain indirect methods based on Lyapunov stability theory and linear matrix inequality techniques (LMIs) have been applied for delay-dependent stability analysis of large-scale load frequency control (LFC) schemes. This paper aims to enhance the numerical tractability of large-scale LMIs by exploiting the special characteristics of the LFC loops. First, in the typical LFC model, only a few delayed states that are directly influenced by transmission delays are distinguished from other normal system states. Hence, an improved reconstruction model is formed, based on which the delay-dependent stability condition is established with the decreased order of the LMIs and decision variables. Then, to further improve the numerical tractability of the developed stability criterion, all weighting matrices required in the augmented Lyapunov functional are enforced to have structural restrictions by proposing an extended symmetry-exploiting technique. Case studies show that the method proposed in this paper significantly improves the calculation efficiency of stability criterion established for multi-area power systems at the cost of only a minor reduction in computational accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Delays and cost overruns in turnkey projects can lead to significant economic losses, disputes and even project abandonment. These facts negatively impact the environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies of companies involved in the project. In this paper, a bibliographic review was conducted to identify the leading causes of delays and cost overruns in turnkey industrial projects in the refining, gas and conventional electricity generation (RGE) sector and propose good practices to avoid or mitigate them. We identified 893 causes of delays and cost overruns and 147 mitigation measures. The causes and mitigation measures were grouped into eight categories based on the execution phases of an RGE project. A critical analysis was carried out to avoid duplication, and the result was evaluated by experts in turnkey project management, reducing the causes and mitigation measures to a final set of 103 and 49, respectively. The construction category showed the most significant influence on project delays and cost overruns, and this, together with the preliminary phase and project management categories, contributed to 60% of the identified causes. The findings of this study can help project managers improve the profitability of turnkey industrial projects, promoting innovation and sustainability within companies and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stream processing is used in various fields. In the field of big data, stream aggregation is a popular processing technique, but it suffers serious setbacks when the order of events (e.g., stream elements) occurring is different from the order of events arriving to the systems. Such data streams are called “non-FIFO steams”. This phenomenon usually occurs in a distributed environment due to many factors, such as network disruptions, delays, etc. Many analyzing scenarios require efficient processing of such non-FIFO streams to meet various data processing requirements. This paper proposes an efficient scalable checkpoint-based bidirectional indexing approach, called $CPiX$ C P i X , for faster real-time analysis over non-FIFO streams. CPiX maintains the partial aggregation results in an on-demand manner per checkpoint. CPiX needs less time and space than the state-of-the-art approach. Extensive experiments confirm that CPiX can deal with out-of-order streams very efficiently and is, on average, about 3.8 times faster than the state-of-the-art approach while consuming less memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction project delays can stem from a myriad of factors and pose significant challenges for owners and contractors. While numerous methods for analyzing delays exist, the majority are designed for network scheduling, lack contemporaneous tracking (i.e., do not allow for identifying and tracking delays as they occur), and struggle with attributing delays to specific stakeholders. Therefore, this paper introduces a novel graphical approach to monitor delays by comparing as-planned and as-built schedules at the activity level. Distinguished by its contemporaneous nature, the new method allows real-time tracking and quantification of delays. This facilitates identifying their origin and potential causes. Rules for constructing the graphs of various delay scenarios are demonstrated for typical activity combinations. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated via a case study that showcases its practical application. Implementing it is straightforward, and while the method could be applied to network schedules, its relevance lies in linear and repetitive schedules. The cyclic nature of tasks in such schedules underscores the importance of contemporaneous delay tracking to facilitate swift remedial actions and pinpoint liability. Practical Applications: In this study, the authors present a new way to track delay using graphs by comparing starts, productivities, and finishes of as-planned and as-built schedules at the activity level. Because it is contemporaneous, the new approach tracks and measures delays in real time, currently manually, but easily implemented as computer code. This method makes it easier to find the source and possible causes of activity and project delays. Detailed rules are derived for common activity scenarios and interactions on how to create the respective graphs. A real-world study demonstrates how the proposed method can be used to substantiate its potential value to practitioners in industry. The proposed approach is practical, and while it could be used for network schedules, it is especially useful for linear and repetitive schedules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective nonlinear control of manipulators with dynamically coupled arms, like those with direct drives, is the subject of the paper. Model-based predictive control (MPC) algorithms with nonlinear state-space models and most recent disturbance attenuation technique are proposed. This technique makes controller design and online calculations simpler, avoiding necessity of dynamic modeling of disturbances or resorting to additional techniques like SMC. The core of the paper are computationally effective MPC-NPL (Nonlinear Prediction and Linearization) algorithms, where computations at every sample are divided into two parts: prediction of initial trajectories using nonlinear model, then optimization using simplified linearized model. For a comparison, a known CTC-PID algorithm, which is also model-based, is considered. It is applied in standard form and also proposed in more advanced CTC-PID2dof version. For all algorithms a comprehensive comparative simulation study is performed, for a direct drive manipulator under disturbances. Additional contribution of the paper is investigation of influence of sampling period and of computational delay time on performance of the algorithms, which is practically important when using model-based algorithms with fast sampling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In one of the several manifestations, the future cellular networks are required to accommodate a massive number of devices, several orders of magnitude compared to today’s networks. At the same time, the future cellular networks will have to fulfill stringent latency constraints. To that end, one problem that is posed as a potential showstopper is extreme congestion for requesting uplink scheduling over the physical random access channel (PRACH). Indeed, such congestion drags along scheduling delay problems. In this paper, the use of self-organized device-to-device (D2D) clustering is advocated for mitigating PRACH congestion. To this end, this paper proposes two D2D clustering schemes, namely, random-based clustering and channel-gain-based clustering. Accordingly, this paper sheds light on random access within the proposed D2D clustering schemes and presents a case study based on a stochastic geometry framework. For the sake of objective evaluation, the D2D clustering is benchmarked by the conventional scheduling request procedure. Accordingly, this paper offers insights into useful scenarios that minimize the scheduling delay for each clustering scheme. Finally, this paper discusses the implementation algorithm and some potential implementation issues and remedies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a test compaction procedure that combines the advantages of using multicycle tests for test compaction with the advantages of using both broadside and skewed-load tests for increasing the fault coverage and achieving test compaction. The procedure is the first to combine these two concepts in a single procedure. The combination is made possible by a definition of a multicycle skewed-load test that is suggested in this paper, and complements the definition of a multicycle broadside test. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of multicycle broadside and skewed-load tests in achieving test compaction for benchmark circuits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Absolute time synchronization is a basic issue in wireless communication. With the advent of 5G, many emerging vertical industry applications have put forward demands for timing accuracy over air interface. High Precision Timing method over Air Interface based on PHY Layer Signals (TAP) is proposed for mobile networks. It is designed to provide microsecond level timing accuracy at a relatively low cost compared to the existing timing methods, such as GNSS, NTP, PTP, etc. The purpose of this paper is to comprehensively improve TAP, including timing accuracy, stability and compatibility, so as to promote its practical application. This paper proposes improvements to TAP from four aspects: timing algorithm, timing pilot signal, terminal timing process and timing parameters determination. We improve the TAP’s deficiencies in delay estimation, delay compensation accuracy and real-time matching of timing information. We implement the workflow of TAPv2 for UE based on FPGA. Finally, we settle the problem of TAP parameters determination by applying a DQN method. The simulations and tests not only show that the DQN model can effectively determine the TAP parameters, but also show TAPv2 can achieve higher accuracy and stability than TAP in multiple scenarios based on the interaction with baseband. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the non-uniform geographic distribution and time-varying characteristics of the ground traffic request, how to make full use of the limited beam resources to serve users flexibly and efficiently is a brand-new challenge for beam hopping satellite systems. The conventional greedy-based beam hopping methods do not consider the long-term reward, which is difficult to deal with the time-varying traffic demand. Meanwhile, the heuristic algorithms such as genetic algorithm have a slow convergence time, which can not achieve real-time scheduling. Furthermore, existing methods based on deep reinforcement learning (DRL) only make decisions on beam patterns, lack of the freedom of bandwidth. This paper proposes a dynamic beam pattern and bandwidth allocation scheme based on DRL, which flexibly uses three degrees of freedom of time, space and frequency. Considering that the joint allocation of bandwidth and beam pattern will lead to an explosion of action space, a cooperative multi-agents deep reinforcement learning (MADRL) framework is presented in this paper, where each agent is only responsible for the illumination allocation or bandwidth allocation of one beam. The agents can learn to collaborate by sharing the same reward to achieve the common goal, which refers to maximize the throughput and minimize the delay fairness between cells. Simulation results demonstrate that the offline trained MADRL model can achieve real-time beam pattern and bandwidth allocation to match the non-uniform and time-varying traffic request. Furthermore, when the traffic demand increases, our model has a good generalization ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers a device-to-device (D2D) fog-radio access network wherein a set of users are required to store/receive a set of files. The D2D devices are connected to a subset of the cloud data centers and thus possess a subset of the data. This paper is interested in reducing the total time of communication, i.e., the completion time, required to disseminate all files among all devices using instantly decodable network coding (IDNC). Unlike previous studies that assume a fully connected communication network, this paper tackles the more realistic scenario of a partially connected network in which devices are not all in the transmission range of one another. The joint optimization of selecting the transmitting device(s) and the file combination(s) is first formulated, and its intractability is exhibited. The completion time is approximated using the celebrated decoding delay approach by deriving the relationship between the quantities in a partially connected network. The paper introduces the cooperation graph and demonstrates that the problem is equivalent to a maximum weight clique problem over the newly designed graph. Extensive simulations reveal that the proposed solution provides noticeable performance enhancement and outperforms previously proposed IDNC-based schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With the rapid growth of renewable energy and power electronic loads, voltage source converters (VSCs) have been commonly applied in different VSCs-based power systems, which also bring in stability issues due to their power electronic characteristics. The impedance-based stability theory and corresponding reshaping method can be used to analyze and solve system stability issue. However, dc stability issue in VSCs-based power systems becomes more complicated when considering ac/dc coupling relationship. This paper proposes an improved reshaping control strategy based on the detailed impedance model considering grid impedance and control delay. The influence of grid impedance, control delay and control parameters of VSC on dc stability are further analyzed to identify the cause of potential resonance risk. The proposed impedance reshaping method considers the trade-off between stability improvement and control performance, and compensates the impacts of grid impedance and control delay at the same time. The validity of stability analysis and reshaping method is further verified through the simulation and experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current values of many populations depend on the past values of the population. In many cases, this dependence is caused by the time certain processes take. This dependence on the past can be introduced into mathematical models by adding delays. For example, the growth rate of a population depends on the population τ time units ago, where τ is the maturation time. For an epidemic, there is a time τ between the contact of an infected individual and a susceptible one, and the time the susceptible individual actually becomes infected. This time τ is also a delay. So, the number of infected individuals depends on the population at the time τ units ago. A second way of introducing this dependence on past values is to use non-local operators in the description of the model. Fractional derivatives have commonly been used to provide non-local effects. In population growth models, it can also be done by introducing a new compartment, the immature population, and in epidemic models, by introducing an additional exposed population. In this paper, we study and compare these methods of adding dependence on past values. For models of processes that involve delays, all three methods include dependence on past values, but fractional-order models do not justify the form of the dependence. Simulations show that for the models studied, the fractional differential equation method produces similar results to those obtained by explicitly incorporating the delay, but only for specific values of the fractional derivative order, which is an extra parameter. But in all three methods, the results are improved compared to using ordinary differential equations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intellectual property (IP) cores used in consumer electronics devices mandate protection against reverse engineering (RE) attacks. Functional obfuscation protects the design functionality by enhancing the complexity of RE attacks. This paper proposes a novel low cost (based on power-delay tradeoff) functional obfuscation methodology through employment of robust IP locking technique. In the proposed obfuscation methodology, several strong multipairwise secure IP locking block designs are presented that can only be actuated through application of valid serial key bits. As demonstration, this paper also shows a practical example of a functional obfuscated netlist structure of FIR filter. Proposed obfuscation on comparison with a recent approach for several DSP cores yielded a power reduction of ~10%, design cost reduction ~ 6.5% and security enhancement (strength of obfuscation) of $>\,\,4.29\,\,{e+9}$ times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an ordered sequence detection (OSD) for digital pulse interval modulation (DPIM) in optical wireless communications. Leveraging the sparsity of DPIM sequences, OSD shows a comparable performance to the optimal maximum likelihood sequence detection with much lower complexity. Compared with the widely adopted sample-by-sample optimal threshold detection (OTD), it considerably improves the bit-error-rate (BER) performance by mitigating error propagation. Moreover, this paper proposes a barrier signal-aided digital pulse interval modulation (BDPIM), where the last of every $K$ symbols is allocated with more power as an inserted barrier signal. BDPIM with OSD (BDPIM-OSD) can limit the error propagation between two adjacent barriers. To reduce the storing delay when using OSD to detect extremely large packets, we propose BDPIM with a combination of OTD and OSD (BDPIM-OTD-OSD), within which long sequences are cut into pieces and separately detected. Approximate upper bounds of the average BER performance of DPIM-OTD, DPIM-OSD, BDPIM-OSD, and BDPIM-OTD-OSD are analysed. Simulations are conducted to corroborate our analysis. Optimal parameter settings are also investigated in uncoded and coded systems by simulations. Simulation results show that the proposed OSD and BDPIM bring significant improvement in uncoded and coded systems over various channels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State-of-charge (SoC) imbalance and bus voltage deviation are two of the main problems in autonomous dc microgrids. Based on this concern, this paper presents an improved dual-quadrant SoC weighted control strategy and a distributed optimization control method to achieve SoC balance, ensuring accurate power-sharing and bus voltage recovery. Firstly, this paper couples the injected/released power with the current SoC and observed average SoC value to weight the droop coefficient, which is based on the charge/discharge mode for the energy storage system. Then a secondary controller is designed based on distributed optimal control to eliminate the bus voltage deviation caused by the line impedance difference. The proposed optimal control method optimizes the average bus voltage to the nominal value and achieve accurate power-sharing by constructing the correlated variables and voltage independent intermediate variables exchanged among bulk energy storage units (ESUs). Since the voltage observer cannot accurately observe the true average bus voltage under the communication delay, the proposed distributed optimal control method without the voltage observer can ensure that the average bus voltage is optimized to the nominal value, thus improving the robustness of the control system. Finally, the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed method are verified in Simulink/MATLAB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless channel characterization and modeling is the foundation of vehicular communication systems. However, most of the existing researches on vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) channel are aimed at the traditional scenarios such as urban and suburban, and the researches on some complicated vehicular scenarios are insufficient. For example, little attention is paid to viaduct, tunnel, and cutting scenarios in vehicular communications, and these complex scenarios often become the high-incidence area of communication interruption, and then affect the overall performance of the vehicular communication system due to the bad and unique channel characteristics. In this paper, to fill this gap, time-varying characteristics of V2V channels in viaduct, tunnel, and cutting scenarios are investigated. Specifically, based on 5.9 GHz channel measurements, channel non-stationarity is quantitatively evaluated and compared. Further, a detailed analysis of time-varying power and delay of multipath components (MPCs) is presented. Based on the obtained results, the mechanism of physical environment affecting channel characteristics is analyzed, and the impacts of vehicular scenarios are quantified. Besides, the impacts of scenarios on the spatial distribution of MPCs are investigated. The angular distributions of MPCs in the three typical V2V scenarios are revealed, and the corresponding statistical characteristics are presented. Moreover, the characteristics of MPC clusters in different scenarios are further quantified and analyzed, such as MPC number in each cluster and cluster lifetime. It is revealed that the non-stationarity of the V2V channel originates from the birth-death process of MPC clusters, and the birth-death process is modeled statistically. The results in the paper show the V2V channel propagation mechanism and can be used for the design of vehicular communication systems in complicated scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the sample-data-based consensus problem of multiagent systems with time-varying delay and packet losses. To distinguish the time delays caused by network-induced time-delay and packet losses, the switched system is utilized. A lower gain controller is designed based on the solution of a parametric algebraic Riccati equation. The Lyapunov stability theory is utilized to obtain the limitations on the frequency and the duration of packet losses which guarantees the consensus of multiagent systems. On the other hand, we theoretically prove that refined time-delay function can reduce the conservatism. A simulation example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with stabilization of an ideal transformer model (ITM) circuit, used as an interfacing algorithm for hardware-in-the-loop simulations. The ITM allows for the distribution of simulation model computations over multiple processors or can be used in power hardware-in-the-loop simulations. When specific impedance conditions of the partitioned circuit are not met, this interfacing algorithm becomes unstable. This paper first presents a new theoretical approach for representing the ITM interfacing algorithm that is based on delay differential equations. With a stability analysis of the obtained time-delay system, a stabilization method is proposed, which increases the stability boundaries of the ITM algorithm. Simulation examples, including the scenario of a two-level inverter system, are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the first time, considering the architecture of monolithic 3-D integration, we evaluate and benchmark the performance of 3-D logic circuits and stability/performance of 3-D 6T SRAM cells with monolayer and few-layer transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) devices based on ITRS 2028 (5.9 nm) technology node. The impact of random variations on the cell stability is also investigated. With the possibility of adopting monolayer or few-layer TMDs for nFET- and pFET-tiers enabled by monolithic 3-D integration, this paper indicates that the trilayer TMD device may substantially degrade the performance of 3-D logic circuits in spite of its higher mobility. This paper also reveals that stacking the monolayer pFET-tier over the bilayer nFET-tier may provide better nominal stability and read/write performance for 6T superthreshold SRAM compared with the planar technology, whereas the optimum 3-D configuration for near-/sub-threshold operations appears to be the monolayer pFET-tier over the monolayer nFET-tier. Besides the 6T cell structure, 8T SRAM cells are also investigated with monolithic 3-D integration for near-threshold/subthreshold operation. The monolayer nFET-tier over the bilayer pFET-tier configuration is shown to be the optimum 3-D 8T near-threshold/subthreshold cell design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polarization and depolarization current measurements are promising on-site, off-line, non-destructive, non-invasive diagnostic tool for condition assessment of paper-oil insulation of transformers. Interpretation of the results of polarization and depolarization current is complex and hence not practiced as a routine diagnostic method for condition monitoring of transformers. This paper discusses various factors affecting polarization and depolarization current measurements with a deeper insight into the theoretical and practical aspects of this technique. Some of the concerns of PDC measurement are explained with support from simulation and experimental studies on paper oil insulation of a laboratory model transformer. Few case studies are discussed to highlight the difficulties in interpretation of results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes on-driving experience sharing algorithms at junctions in infrastructure-assisted vehicles-to-everything networks. For the purpose, a millimeter-wave (mmWave) technology is used because it provides multi-Gbps data rates which is helpful for handling users’ short stay times at junctions and spatial reuse due to high beam directionality which is helpful for interference-avoidance among densely deployed vehicles at junctions. To realize on-driving experience sharing, the proposed algorithms focus on joint resource allocation and scheduling for 3GPP-compliant multiple unicast vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications where the vehicles are group leaders (GLs) in 3GPP Mode 4(d). The resource allocation stands for the roadside unit (RSU) allocation to scheduled V2V GL links where RSU is essentially required for overcoming blockage by establishing two-hop relaying. Because vehicles stay for short times at junctions, this paper designs two algorithms without or with delay considerations. Without delay considerations, the joint optimization of RSU allocation and scheduling was originally formulated as mixed 0-1 non-convex optimization. However our proposed algorithm reformulates the problem into mixed 0-1 convex optimization, which is computationally easier to solve. With delay considerations, our proposed algorithm dynamically controls video contents frame rates for time-average on-driving video sharing quality maximization subject to delay constraints, inspired by Lyapunov optimization. Extensive simulation results demonstrate that our algorithms can significantly outperform in a variety of scenarios. Furthermore, we conduct the cost analysis for the proposed algorithms in terms of capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operating expenditure (OPEX). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The age of information (AoI) is a key performance metric for data freshness in real-time systems, measuring the time elapsed between status updates received at a remote destination. This paper addresses the analysis of both the AoI and the delay for a system demanding timely status updates, consisting of an internet of things (IoT) community, and a multi-core edge computing node (EN). The IoT devices perform channel contention according to a slotted aloha non-orthogonal multiple access scheme with two transmission power levels to access the EN. The objective of the paper is the dynamic selection of both the EN computation capabilities and the suitable access probability for the two power levels, aiming at maximizing the time-average system utility, while guaranteeing the queues stability. The device end-to-end delay is analyzed by resorting to the martingale theoretical approximation under the condition that the Lyapunov optimization framework is performed on a time slot basis, hence leading to a novel instantaneous mixed integer problem formulation. Furthermore, the generalized benders decomposition method is employed to provide a suboptimal solution for the formulated problem. Finally, the accuracy of the proposed framework is validated by comparing the obtained analytical predictions with simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial modulation (SM) is one special type of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technique whose advantage is that only one radio-frequency (RF) chain is needed. Recently, the so-called cross Z-complementary pair (CZCP) was proposed as the SM training sequence. Optimal channel estimation performance over frequency-selective channels can be achieved since the CZCPs have the specific zero correlation zone (ZCZ) for auto-correlation and cross-correlation sums. However, the ZCZ width of the CZCP is theoretically upper bounded by half sequence length. In this paper, the CZCP is extended to the cross Z-complementary set (CZCS) to have larger ZCZ width which can be used in SM to combat larger delay spread. Several generic constructions of CZCSs with large ZCZ widths and flexible lengths are proposed in this paper. Even the perfect CZCS, whose ZCZ width has the maximum value, can be obtained. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the proposed CZCS-based training sequence can tolerate large delay spreads to improve the channel estimation performance in SM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Future communication networksrequire higher bandwidth, greater coverage, and better throughput. The Space-Air-Ground Integrated Network (SAGIN) has the advantage of wide-area coverage and can cover global communications. It can meet the needs of network resources for maritime activities and remote mountainous areas, which is of great significance to the realization of a new generation of communications networks. With the development of the network and the emergence of delay-sensitive applications such as the Internet of Things, improving the delay performance of the system has received extensive attention. SAGIN involves multiple networks and is more complex than other networks. If there is no reasonable management between different networks, it is easy to lead to difficult link deployment and high time delay. On the basis of research and customization of SFC technology, it can provide a wide range of services and other advantages. It has significant performance in application scenarios involving multi network integration. In order to solve the above problems, this paper studies the SAGIN architecture of SFC based on business types. A service function chain mapping method based on delays prediction is proposed. Calculate the delay of the deployment path and select the path with the lowest delay as the SFC mapping path. The service model is constructed according to the mapping path, and the network slices are divided based on the service type. The simulation results show that the SFC mapping algorithm based on time delay prediction is compared with the traditional SFC mapping scheme. The algorithm does not affect other indicators, the CPU resource utilization rate is 27.8 $\%$ higher, and the link resource utilization rate is 22.7 $\%$ higher. The service acceptance rate increased by 21.5 $\%$ , the latency performance increased by 38.2 $\%$ , and the total resource consumption is reduced by 25.2 $\%$. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highway platooning of vehicles has been identified as a promising framework in developing intelligent transportation systems. By autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle control and intervehicle coordination, an appropriately managed platoon can potentially offer enhanced safety, improved highway utility, increased fuel economy, and reduced emissions. This paper is focused on quantitative characterization of the impact of communication information structures and contents on platoon safety. By comparing different information structures that combine front sensors, rear sensors, and wireless communication channels, as well as different information contents such as distances, speeds, and drivers' actions, we reveal a number of intrinsic relationships between vehicle coordination and communications in platoons. Typical communication standards and related communication latency are used as benchmark cases in this paper. The findings of this paper provide useful guidelines in sensor selections, communication resource allocations, and vehicle coordination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vertical interconnects used in monolithic 3-D integrated circuits (3-D ICs), so-called monolithic interlayer vias (MIVs), are as small as local vias. Thus, redesigning an existing 2-D IC layout in a monolithic 3-D IC generally results in shorter wire length than the 2-D IC layout. In addition, MIVs have almost negligible resistance and capacitance, so their impact on signal delay is very small. Thus, redesigning a 2-D IC layout in a monolithic 3-D IC is expected to improve its performance significantly. Some researchers designed several monolithic 3-D IC layouts and showed their timing benefits in the literature. In this paper, we present analytical models for performance (timing) benefits of multitier gate-level monolithic 3-D ICs. The analytical models we develop in this paper can be used to quickly estimate the performance benefits multitier gate-level monolithic 3-D integration provides without physically redesigning 2-D IC layouts in 3-D. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the robust containment control problem of multiagent systems with heterogeneous uncertainty and nonlinearity while the nonlinear parts have to satisfy the Lipschitz condition. In this paper, both input time-delay and data transmission time-delay between the agents are considered simultaneously and communication topology of the multiagent systems may switch in the steady-state condition. Under the mentioned conditions, the objective of this paper is to make all the followers’ states converge to the convex hull shaped by the leaders’ states with an expected exponential rate. To this end, an appropriate smooth protocol is proposed. Then, a Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional composed of five terms is proposed and the stability condition is denoted by two linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). In addition to the stability assurance, solving the LMIs would obtain the suitable gains for the protocol. Finally, some numerical simulations are given to verify the theoretical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, robust exponential synchronization of memristor-based neural networks (MNNs) with nonidentical characteristics is investigated. Coefficient mismatch, time-varying delay mismatch, and activation function mismatch are considered between the drive and the response MNNs. Pinning control strategy is developed to realize robust exponential synchronization and the stability criteria is established by using the Lyapunov function method and differential inclusion theory. Furthermore, the stable region of controller parameters is computed to guarantee that the synchronization errors enter a predetermined error bound within given settling time. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed methods is verified by the numerical simulations. The methods presented in this paper offer novel schemes for robust exponential synchronization of nonidentical MNNs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a novel approach to investigating the mechanisms related to partial discharge dynamics. Applying the chopped sequence provided insight into the dielectric void and allowed post partial discharge charge decay phenomena to be investigated. The measurements were performed on specimens with an embedded void having three different wall dielectric materials: insulating paper, thermosetting insulation or cross-linked polyethylene. The quantitative approach offers greater information regarding the relationship between measured quantities on phase-resolved patterns and charge decay phenomena inside the void. The comparison of PD inception phase angles between continuous and chopped sequence was used as an indicator for calculation of internal charge time decay in the void. The precise calculation of time constant for various void wall materials was presented. The decaying charge resulted in the variation of the electric field from deposited and accumulated charges. The presented methodology may allow the void to be analyzed with greater clarity, offering the potential to assess various mechanisms such as charge neutralization and conduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the estimation and compensation of I/Q imbalance, one of the most prominent impairments found in wideband zero-intermediate frequency transceivers (TRxs). The I/Q imbalance encountered in this kind of TRx comprises not only frequency-selective gain and phase imbalance but also delay imbalance. Unless appropriate compensation is applied, the I/Q imbalance significantly degrades the performance of a communication system. This paper presents a novel compensation technique for transmitter I/Q imbalance based on built-in-self-calibration, a low cost and robust compensation technique that enables manufacturing as well as in-field calibration with low computational complexity. The method's performance is evaluated in a TRx with 64-quadratic-amplitude modulation and 2 GHz of bandwidth implemented with real hardware. The measurements show that the proposed technique achieves an image rejection ratio greater than 35 dB in the entire 2 GHz bandwidth and an error vector magnitude lower than 3%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This study characterized the extent to which (1) financial barriers and (2) abortion care-seeking within a person's country of residence were associated with delays in abortion access among those travelling to England and the Netherlands for abortion care from European countries where abortion is legal on broad grounds in the first trimester but where access past the first trimester is limited to specific circumstances. Methodology: We drew on cross-sectional survey data collected at five abortion clinics in England and the Netherlands from 2017 to 2019 (n = 164). We assessed the relationship between difficulty paying for the abortion/travel, acute financial insecurity, and in-country care seeking on delays to abortion using multivariable discrete-time hazards models. Results: Participants who reported facing both difficulty paying for the abortion procedure and/or travel and difficulty covering basic living costs in the last month reported longer delays in accessing care than those who had no financial difficulty (adjusted hazard odds ratio: 0.39 95% CI 0.21–0.74). This group delayed paying other expenses (39%) or sold something of value (13%) to fund their abortion, resulting in ~ 60% of those with financial difficulty reporting it took them over a week to raise the funds needed for their abortion. Having contacted or visited an abortion provider in the country of residence was associated with delays in presenting abroad for an abortion. Discussion: These findings point to inequities in access to timely abortion care based on socioeconomic status. Legal time limits on abortion may intersect with individuals' interactions with the health care system to delay care. Plain Language Summary: This paper explores delays in accessing abortion care associated with financial and medical system barriers. We focus on residents of countries in Europe where abortion is available on broad grounds in the first trimester seeking abortion care outside of their country of residence. This study demonstrates an association between difficulty covering abortion costs for people facing financial insecurity and in-country care seeking and delays in accessing abortion abroad. Policy barriers, medical system barriers, as well as financial barriers may interact to delay access to care for people in European countries with broad grounds for abortion access in the first trimester but restrictions thereafter, especially for people later in pregnancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our focus of this paper is on global Mittag-Leffler synchronization (GMLS) of the Caputotype Inertial Cohen-Grossberg Neural Networks (ICGNNs) with discrete and distributed delays. This model takes into account the inertial term as well as the two types of delays, which greatly reduces the conservatism with respect to the model. A change of variables transforms the 2β order inertial frame into β order ordinary frame in order to deal with the effect of the inertial term. In the following steps, two novel types of delay controllers are designed for the purpose of reaching the GMLS. In conjunction with the novel controllers, utilizing differential mean-value theorem and inequality techniques, several criteria are derived to determine the GMLS of ICGNNs within the framework of Caputo-type derivative and calculus properties. At length, the feasibility of the results is further demonstrated by two simulation examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the first investigation of extended dissipative synchronization in a specific type of Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy complex dynamical networks with interval hybrid coupling delays. First, the decoupling method is employed to reorganize the multiple communication dynamical system, which comprises discrete-time, partial and distributed coupling delays. Second, the non-fragile control, which allows for uncertainty management within predefined norm bounds, has been applied to networks. Moreover, it becomes possible to derive a less conservative condition by utilizing multiple integral Lyapunov functionals, a decoupling strategy, Jensen's inequality, Wirtinger's inequality, and mathematical inequality techniques. This condition ensures that the T-S fuzzy complex dynamical networks, with interval hybrid coupling delays, can attain asymptotic synchronization with the assistance of a non-fragile feedback controller. Additionally, we extended this system to the extended dissipativity analysis, including passivity, L2 - L∞, H∞ and dissipativity performance in a unified formulation. A set of strict linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) conditions is a sufficient criterion. Finally, two simulation examples are proposed to verify the merit of the obtained results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the different per-user bandwidths available for each tier of heterogeneous networks (HetNets) and the corresponding downlink range expansion (RE, a key measure to boost small cell association). Based on the practical case of tier-specific path loss exponents, we derive the local delay of HetNets under the random discontinuous transmission scheme (DTX, employed to manage the interference and reduce energy consumption). Using such a new expression for local delay, we then analyze the corresponding energy efficiency (EE). These delay and EE expressions reveal that there exists an optimal value for both the RE bias factor and for the DTX mute probability. A closed-form optimum solution for the RE bias factor is also derived for the low-rate regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Real-time dynamic workload consists of tasks that can arbitrarily join and leave the system at run-time. To avoid incurring deadline misses, tasks that request to join the system must pass an admission test, which has to cope with potential scheduling transients originated by the residual effect of the tasks that previously left the system. This phenomenon may require some tasks to suffer an admission delay before being accepted for execution. This paper focuses on uniprocessor earliest-deadline first (EDF) scheduling with constrained deadlines and explicitly considers methods for handling scheduling transients in the presence of dynamic real-time workload. A generalized analysis framework is first presented to overcome several limitations of the existing approaches (including the support for overlapping transients), and is then used to derive methods for computing bounds on the admission delays incurred by tasks. Building on such results, an on-line protocol is proposed to handle the admission control of a dynamic workload, which also comes with a variant that can execute in polynomial time to favor its practical application. Furthermore, the paper shows how the presented analysis can be used off-line for analyzing mode-changes among static task sets. Experimental results are finally presented to evaluate the proposed algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the system design, calibration, and example measurements of a novel ultra-wideband, low-cost, real-time channel sounder. The channel sounder operates in the frequency range from 3 to 18 GHz with a 15-GHz bandwidth thus providing a Fourier delay resolution of 66.7 ps. It sequentially measures overlapping sub-bands of 1-GHz bandwidth to cover the whole frequency range. By using a waveform generator and a digitizer with relatively lower sample rates, the design significantly lowers the cost compared with sampling the whole band simultaneously. With the transmitting power of 40 dBm, the maximum measurable path loss is 132 dB without accounting for possible antenna gains. In this paper, we also describe the calibration procedure along with the method to stitch sub-bands into a combined channel response across 15 GHz of bandwidth. The channel sounder performance is compared with a vector network analyzer (VNA) measurements acquired in the same static channels. In contrast to VNAs, however, our channel sounder can measure the whole band in 6 ms and can, thus, operate in dynamic environments with coherence time more than 6 ms. Additionally, we present sample results from a measurement campaign performed in an indoor corridor investigating the delay spreads statistics over the range of 3–18 GHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the consensus problem of general linear dynamic multiagent systems with stochastic sampling. In this paper, the sampling intervals randomly switch between two different values. The communication topology between agents is fixed and directed. Full- and reduced-order observers are designed based on neighbor agents’ relative output information. The algorithms to construct such observers are also provided. By using the estimated states of the agents, the observer-based consensus protocol with stochastic sampling are presented. Sufficient conditions to ensure consensus in mean square are derived by using Lyapunov stability theory. Finally, simulations are given to examine the effectiveness of the proposed methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rise of critical machine-to-machine applications, next generation wireless communication systems must meet challenging requirements with respect to latency and reliability. A key question in this context relates to channel state estimation, which allows the transmitter to adapt the code rate to the channel state. In this paper, we characterize the tradeoff between the training sequence length and data codeword length: shorter channel estimation leaves more time for the payload transmission but reduces the estimation accuracy and causes more decoding errors. Using lower coding rates can mitigate this effect, but may result in a higher backlog of data at the transmitter. In order to optimize the training sequence length and the rate adaptation scheme with respect to the delay performance, we employ queuing analysis on top of accurate models of the physical layer. We obtain an analytically tractable solution to the problem by deriving a closed-form approximation for the decoding error probability due to imperfect channel knowledge and finite-blocklength channel coding. The optimized training sequence length and rate adaptation strategy can reduce the delay violation probability by an order of magnitude, compared with suboptimal strategies that do not consider the delay constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the event-triggered finite-time control problem for networked switched linear systems by using an asynchronous switching scheme. Not only the problem of finite-time boundedness, but also the problem of input-output finite-time stability is considered in this paper. Compared with the existing event-triggered results of the switched systems, a new type of event-triggered condition is proposed. Sufficient conditions are established to guarantee the event-based asynchronous closed-loop systems are both finite-time bounded and input-output finite-time stable. A set of event-triggered finite-time bounded and input-output finite-time stabilizing controllers are designed under the asynchronous control scheme. It is revealed that the triggered thresholds determine the number of sampling points transmitted to the controller, and the smaller triggered parameters indicate the less-sampled data needed to be transmitted to the controller under the event-triggered scheme. Finally, a boost converter circuit is applied to bring out the advantages of the proposed control scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Travelling wave based protection functions require significantly higher sampling rates than protection functions based on time-domain superimposed quantities or fundamental frequency phasors. Integrating these high sampling rates in digital substations leads to a significant increase of the communication load of process-level networks and causes high computational cost for centralized protection systems. This paper builds on a distributed signal processing approach, which allocates the filtering operations among standalone merging units (SAMU). In particular, the paper presents a decimation filter design to integrate signals with high sampling rates at the process-level. Thereby, signal sequences with high, medium and low sampling rates are provided according to the requirements of the respective protection function. The decimation filter structure is optimized with respect to time delay by the Remez exchange algorithm and with respect to computational cost by a multistage approach and a sparse filter design algorithm. In addition, the filter response is verified against the accuracy constraints defined in IEC 61869-6 and IEC 61869-13. The paper shows that it is feasible to distribute the filtering operations among SAMUs, while keeping the time delay below the maximum allowable processing delay of 2 ms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobile edge computing has been an important supplement for traditional cloud computing architecture to offer low-delay computing services to mobile users. However, it is in general impossible for edge service providers to overdeploy so much edge resources to satisfy the rapidly increasing while diverse user demands. In this paper, we study a mobile edge computing system consisting of a service platform, cloudlets joining the system, and mobile users. In this study, we focus on a profit-driven perspective such that the service platform purchases computation resource from the resource-rich cloudlets and makes profit by processing tasks from user side. The design objective is to maximize the platform profit subject to budget constraint and stringent delay requirements for task processing. We formulate this problem as a mixed integer programming problem. Due to the NP-hardness of the problem, we design a logic based Benders decomposition algorithm as the offline solution. We further study the scenario where the task arrivals from user side and resource availability at the cloudlets are both stochastic and unknown in advance. We accordingly propose a Multi-Armed Bandit learning based resource purchasing and greedy task scheduling algorithm for the online scenario. Simulations results show the high performance of our proposed algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) is expanding rapidly. For safe and reliable integration of UAS into the National Airspace System (NAS), control and nonpayload communication (CNPC) system requirements are being developed. The air-to-ground (AG) channel characteristics essentially determine CNPC link performance. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Glenn Research Center has sponsored a comprehensive AG channel measurement campaign in 2013 in both the L- and C-bands recently allocated for UAS. These measurements covered nearly all typical ground site (GS) local environments, including over water, hilly, mountainous, suburb, and near urban. As a continuation of results reported for the over-water scenarios, a description of the measurement campaign, measured results, and complete AG channel models for hilly and mountainous terrains are provided in this paper. The path loss is modeled by a modified log-distance path loss model with a correction for flight direction; path loss results are close to those of free space. A strong ground reflection was observed only for some small portions of some of the flight paths. The small-scale fading is well modeled by the Ricean distribution with a $K$-factor of 29.4 dB in the C-band and 12.8 dB in the L-band. The interband signals are uncorrelated. The spatial correlation for the two intraband channels with an aircraft antenna separation of 1.8 m is greater than 0.85. The C-band root-mean-square delay spread (RMS-DS) is 10 ns most of the time, with a maximum of 1 \mu\text{s} in hilly terrain and 180 ns in mountainous terrain. Tapped delay line (TDL) models accounting for the line of sight (LOS) and up to seven intermittent multipath components (MPCs) were developed, including the MPCs' probability of occurrence, relative power, phase, duration, and excess delay. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For several years, the completion time and the decoding delay problems in instantly decodable network coding (IDNC) were considered separately and were thought to act completely against each other. Recently, some works have aimed to balance the effects of these two important IDNC metrics, but none of them studied a further optimization of one by controlling the other. This paper investigates the effect of controlling the decoding delay to reduce the completion time below its currently best known solution in both perfect and imperfect feedback with persistent erasure channels. To solve the problem, the decoding-delay-dependent expressions of the users' and overall completion times are derived in the complete feedback scenario. Although using such expressions to find the optimal overall completion time is NP-hard, this paper proposes two novel heuristics that minimize the probability of increasing the maximum of these decoding-delay-dependent completion time expressions after each transmission through a layered control of their decoding delays. Afterward, this paper extends the study to the imperfect feedback scenario, in which uncertainties at the sender affect its ability to anticipate accurately the decoding delay increase at each user. This paper formulates the problem in such an environment and derives the expression of the minimum increase in the completion time. Simulation results show the performance of the proposed solutions and suggest that both heuristics achieve a lower mean completion time, as compared with the best known heuristics for completion time reduction in perfect and imperfect feedback. The gap in performance becomes more significant as the erasure of the channel increases. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we systematically evaluate the variation in the reversal delay of a nanomagnet driven by a longitudinal spin current under the influence of thermal noise. We then use the results to evaluate the performance of an all-spin-logic (ASL) circuit. First, we review and expand on the physics of previously published analytical models on stochastic nanomagnet switching. The limits of previously established models are defined, and it is shown that these models are valid for nanomagnet reversal times <200 ps. Second, the insight obtained from previous models allows us to represent the probability density function (pdf) of the nanomagnet switching delay using the double exponential function of the Fréchet distribution. The pdf of a single nanomagnet is extended to more complex nanomagnet circuit configurations. It is shown that the delay-variation penalty incurred by nanomagnets arranged in parallel configuration is dwarfed by the average delay increase for nanomagnets arranged in a series configuration. Finally, we demonstrate the impact of device-level performance variation on the circuit behavior using ASL logic gates. While the analysis presented in this paper uses an ASL-AND gate as the prototype switching circuit in the spin domain, the physical concepts are generic and can be extended to any complex spin-based circuit. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The performance of throughput, delay, and their tradeoff in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) has been investigated on different assumptions. Nevertheless, few papers consider the supportive infrastructure in MANETs. With the help of supportive infrastructure, i.e., cellular networks, the performance of throughput and delay in MANETs can be improved. The impact of supportive infrastructure on the throughput–delay tradeoff in MANETs is an open research point. In this paper, we are interested in the optimal throughput–delay tradeoff in MANETs with supportive infrastructure. We investigate the supportive infrastructure that only provides transmission pipes between distant nodes. We study the optimal throughput–delay tradeoff in MANETs on different assumptions such as different densities of nodes and base stations (BSs), discrete/continuous mobility models with various velocities, and the fast/slow mobility assumption. We obtain the asymptotically optimal throughput–delay tradeoff and propose transmission policies based on random linear coding (RLC) to achieve the optimal throughput–delay tradeoff asymptotically. From the obtained optimal throughput–delay tradeoff, we find that supportive infrastructure reduces the delay bound from velocity, which is a lower bound of delay caused by nodes' velocity. In particular, if supportive infrastructure can cover the entire network, then the delay bound from velocity vanishes when per-node throughput does not exceed a threshold. Moreover, we find that there also exists a delay bound from the transmission range of the instant transmission. In addition, we observe that, for the optimal throughput–delay tradeoff in the large throughput region, the case in the continuous mobility model outperforms the case in the discrete mobility model, and the case on the slow mobility assumption outperforms the case on the fast mobility assumption. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, the stability problem of delayed neural networks is investigated by adopting some switching methods. First, the delay interval is divided into many smaller variable intervals, and when the smaller variable interval is regarded as a mode of the delay, delayed neural networks are modeled as switched systems. Then, by using some switching methods, less conservative stability criteria are derived to ensure the stability of delayed neural networks. Finally, one example is provided to show the effectiveness of the obtained criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excessive switching activity in the fault-free circuit can cause a fault-free circuit to fail because of increased delays. For the same reason, excessive switching activity in a faulty circuit can cause a delay fault to escape detection. This paper observes that the switching activity is higher in the presence of multiple delay faults with higher multiplicities (larger numbers of single faults that are present in the circuit together). The challenge in addressing multiple faults is related to their large number. This paper addresses this challenge by an iterative procedure that is applied to transition faults under a low-power broadside test set, and has two subprocedures: 1) the first subprocedure finds multiple transition faults with excessive faulty switching activity and 2) the second subprocedure modifies the test set so as to avoid excessive faulty switching activity for the faults found by the first subprocedure. With every additional iteration there are fewer multiple transition faults that exhibit excessive faulty switching activity. The experimental results for benchmark circuits demonstrate the levels of excessive faulty switching activity in the presence of multiple transition faults, and the possibility of reducing or even eliminating it after a small number of iterations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]